The Ujh multipurpose project was conceived way back in the year 2016 with an estimated expenditure of Rs 4750 crore. The expenditure has now reached more than Rs 9167 crore, yet the mega-structure is lingering in incompletion.

There are continuous surveys conducted by Central Water Commission’s Chief Engineer Shiv Kumar Nandan, yet there are several hitches that hinder the completion of the product. The Phase II clearances including environment clearance, forest Clearance, etc are still pending to kick start the construction of the dam on the field.

“There are Phase II clearances that are still awaited and we are continuously working on this Ujh Multipurpose Project. We are hopeful that in this year, we would be able to kick start it after getting all the requisite clearances,” SK Haldar, Chairman Central Water Commission, told The Daily Guardian.

The project will store around 0.65 million acre-feet (MAF) of water of the Ujh to irrigate nearly 30,000 hectares of land and produce more than 200 MW of hydro-power.

Project authorities apprised that statutory clearances for Phase-I of the project have been obtained. Member (WP&P), CWC emphasized that meetings for the Ujh multipurpose project requested clearances for Phase-II of the project which may be expedited, and the timeline for the same may be intimated within 10 days.

Further, during an internal CWC meeting, several options were discussed, especially regarding the increase in area under Zaid crop, cropping pattern, canal alignment, power potential studies, etc. to further improve the benefits from the project and optimizing the cost of the same.

Chandigarh: The Punjab Police on Tuesday busted a major cross-border espionage network with the arrest of two Army personnel on charges of spying and providing classified documents to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, DGP Dinkar Gupta said.

He told that those arrested have been identified as Sepoy Harpreet Singh (23), who hails from village Cheecha in Amritsar and was posted in Anantnag. He joined the Indian Army in 2017 and belongs to 19 Rashtriya Rifles. Sepoy Gurbhej Singh (23), a native of village Punian in Tarn Taran, belongs to 18 Sikh Light Infantry and was working as a clerk in Kargil. He had joined the Indian Army in 2015.

Sharing details further, DGP Punjab said that Jalandhar Rural Police led by SSP Naveen Singla, while investigating an NDPS case, recovered confidential and secret documents related to the functioning and deployment of the Indian Army from cross-border drug smuggler Ranvir Singh, who was arrested with 70 grams heroin on May 24, 2021.

He said that, during interrogation, Ranvir disclosed that he got these documents from Sepoy Harpreet Singh, who was his friend, as they both belong to the same village.

“Ranvir motivated and lured Sepoy Harpreet Singh with financial benefits for sharing defence related classified documents, following which the latter induced his friend Sepoy Gurbhej into such anti-national spying activities,” said DGP Dinkar Gupta, while adding that since Gurbhej was working as a clerk in 121 Infantry Brigade Headquarters in Kargil, he could get easy access to these classified documents containing both strategic and tactical information relating to the Indian Army.

He said that both the accused Army personnel had already shared photos of over 900 classified documents— pertaining to defence of the country and national security to Ranvir Singh— over a period of 4 months between February and May 2021— who had further passed them on to Pakistani Intelligence Officers.

The DGP revealed that Ranvir further used to send these classified documents to either the Pakistan ISI operatives directly or via Gopi, who has been identified as the main drug smuggler from village Dauke in Amritsar having links with Pakistan based drug-smuggling syndicates and ISI officials, who invariably work in tandem with each other. Police have also arrested Gopi, who has confessed to having transferred classified documents to a Pakistan-based drug smuggler.

Meanwhile, sections 124-A and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 3, 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act have been added after nominating the names of both the Army personnel and Gopi in the FIR no. 73 dated May 24, 2021, which was initially registered against Ranvir under sections 21(B)/61/85 of the NDPS act at Police Station Mehatpur in Jalandhar Rural. 

Last week, after the Chandigarh Administrator VPS Badnore’s orders, PGIMER Chandigarh started a serosurvey on the pediatric population of Chandigarh. Yesterday, in the primitive report of serosurvey, it was found that two-thirds of the pediatric population of Chandigarh has already gotten affected with Covid-19 during the second wave. As per the experts, this number is huge and the pediatric population of Chandigarh may have acquired herd immunity as well.

With a sample size of 2500, the PGIMER team was able to test 756 kids, and out of 2500 children, 396 kids from the urban area were found to have antibodies in their bodies and 361 kids from the rural area of Chandigarh were found to have antibodies against the virus too. This means 65 percent of the kids’ population of the urban area have already developed antibodies in them, and 73 percent of kids from rural areas are also immune.

Dr. Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER told The Daily Guardian, “Two-third of the kids’ population was affected with Covid-19 and they now have antibodies in their bodies. This implies that the third wave prediction that says the virus would affect kids severely, may not be true, as kids have already gotten affected in the second wave and have recovered too. Nevertheless, One should not lose guards, wearing masks and social distancing is necessary, as this part of the population is not vaccinated yet.”

Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta on Tuesday said that Police has busted another targetted killing module backed by Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) handlers based abroad with the arrest of its 4 operatives, including a former Indian Army Sepoy, who had managed to escape from Patiala Jail in April 2021.

Gupta said that accused Jaspreet Singh alias Noopi, who had joined the Indian Army as a Sepoy in 2012, was lodged in jail in a murder case in 2017. “After escaping from Jail, Noopi came in contact with foreign-based KLF handlers who motivated and induced him to raise a terror module to carry out targeted killings in the state,” he said.

The other three arrested persons have been identified as Jaswinder Singh, a resident of village Fatehpur Bunga in Ropar, Gaurav Jain alias Minku of village Kaliawala in district Sirsa and Parshant Silelan alias Kabir, a native of Meerut UP and presently staying at Dhanas in Chandigarh, the DGP added.

Sharing details, SSP Khanna Gursharan Singh Grewal said that, following inputs, the Khanna Police had stopped an Etios car during special checking at GT Road Khanna, and three persons, who got out of the car, tried to flee after opening fire at the Police Party. However, the Police party managed to nab Jaswinder and Minku on the spot, while Noopi was arrested later, along with Kabir, his other accomplice.

The Police also recovered two .32 bore Pistols, along with 4 magazines and ammunition from the possession of accused persons besides an Etios car bearing a fake registration number, which had been snatched by Noopi at gunpoint from Zirakpur last month] he added.

DGP Dinkar Gupta said that, during investigations, Noopi confessed to having snatched the Etios car, besides looting Rs 50000 from a Petrol pump in Kharar on July 3, 2021, with the help of his associates.

“Noopi disclosed that he had come in contact with militant anti-India individuals and elements based abroad with links to KLF terrorist outfit, who had funded him from abroad for carrying out target killings in Punjab and also arranged Pistols for him from UP to carry out terror acts in Punjab,” said DGP Dinkar Gupta, while adding that Noopi also did recce of sensitive targets in Punjab towards in pursuance of his violent intentions.

SSP Khanna said that preliminary investigations had revealed that the module had received funding from abroad via various digital platforms including Western Union, Paytm, etc and foreign handlers also provided three weapons to the module from Rudrapur in Uttrakhand. Further investigations are on, he added.

Shantanu Thakur may get a berth in the cabinet of the Narendra Modi government this time, sources say. According to sources, as the buzz about the PM’s cabinet reshuffle is making rounds all over, MP Shantanu Thakur has been summoned to Delhi.

Shantanu Thakur is scheduled to hold a meeting with the central leaders in Delhi on Tuesday, sources said. Before the assembly elections, the BJP turned a blind eye to the Matua vote. However, three weeks ago, there was a lot of speculation about the political position of Shantanu Thakur, one of the leaders of the Matua community.

On the day of Mukul’s return to the Trinamool, three MLAs were absent from Dilip’s meeting in Bangaon. MP Shantanu was not there either. And that is where the speculation culminates. Why did he avoid the meeting? Missing MPs and MLAs did not respond.

Before the vote, Shantanu Thakur was upset about the non-implementation of the CAA.

At the center of this caste vote-bank politics is the Matua community— a scheduled caste group with a population of over 3 crore across the state, influencing over 70 assembly constituencies, and spread across the districts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, and other smaller pockets of North and South Bengal.

Moreover, West Bengal has 10 out of its 42 parliamentary constituencies reserved for the scheduled castes and has the second-highest SC population in the country.

Amid this, it is heard that this time Shantanu is going to get a place in Modi’s cabinet. Some BJP leaders have said that BJP MP Nishith Pramanik from West Bengal is also likely to join the cabinet. The BJP has done well in the last Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assembly elections. Nevertheless, political analysts say, Thakur’s place in the cabinet is his ‘much-awaited’ reward.

On Tuesday, West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and the leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari walked out of the Assembly session following an argument with the treasury bench. He was further joined by several other BJP MLAs after the Speaker called the matter of CM losing the Nandigram seat as ‘subjudice’.

“I raised the issue of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee losing in Nandigram. The Speaker said the matter is subjudice. I said then why I should stay here,” explained Adhikari.

Before leaving, Suvendu Adhikari asked the Speaker why should he stay if he cannot raise the matter.

This is the first Assembly Session being conducted after Mamata Banerjee-led TMC won the recently held elections in Bengal and retained power in the state. The session began on June 2 when the opening session of the newly constituted assembly was het-up after the Governor was forced to cut short his inaugural speech amid the commotion by opposition BJP MLAs who protested after finding “no mention” of post-poll violence in the speech.

Reportedly, Dhankhar tabled the speech after reading a few lines from an 18-page address approved by the state Cabinet.

When assembly election results were declared in May, the results announcement had taken a shocking turn late in the evening after Adhikari bagged the majority from Mamata Banerjee’s strong hold. The Nandigram bout underwent the most ferocious campaign as Mamata played her ‘Bengal’s daughter’ card, while Suvendu has accused TMC of only ‘promoting the nephew’.

Mamata, blaming her injury on BJP, vowed to conduct her campaign on a wheelchair with the BJP calling it ‘sympathy politics’. She has also termed Adhikaris as ‘Mir Jafars’ while Suvendu fearmongered that ‘Bengal will become mini-Pakistan’ if she is re-elected.

Nevertheless, after the fiery campaigning, Adhikari defeated Mamata Banerjee in the latter’s home-turf. Mamata later said that she will challenge the electoral verdict in court, and currently, the case is being heard in the Calcutta High Court.

Meanwhile, when Adhikari spoke on the issue of voting in Nandigram, Law Minister Malay Ghatak went to the Speaker Biman Banerjee and protested. After that, Banerjee told Shuvendu, “The matter is under trial, cannot be taken further as such. You should speak about something else.’’

The opposition MLAs, including Adhikari, walked out after the speaker’s speech. Banerjee, however, condemned the walkout.